How do you fit it all in? - not enough hours in the day

[Khalam's Mama]

I have a nearly 11MO and I don't know what I am doing with his easy at the moment. He manages 4hrs A time and generally wants 1hr + 1.5hr naps in the day and sleeps 11-12hrs at night and since that adds up to more than 24hrs we are just getting later and later bedtime and then having occasional days when we only have one nap to get bedtime earlier again. But when we did one nap for more than 1 day he had NW's when he has been STTN otherwise. I thought he was ready for 2-1 transition but cutting the 1hr nap further only seems to make him more tired. If I cut the A times he fights going down majorly, but goes down well at these 4hr A times. Also he hates to be woken so if I try to cut his nap he is miserable until the next nap.
What should a routine look like to accomodate all this??

[Yazzie]

I totally hear u...!...as a result of all of what u're saying, our days start @ 8ish & end ard 9ish, I have to ask, do his A times increase as the day goes by or decrease?

[anna*]

When there start to be too few hours in the day, you need to either cut back one of those naps (ie cut back the first nap to 45 mins and bring the next nap a bit earlier), or do a later bedtime!

[Khalam's Mama]

Thanks for your replies ladies.
Yazzie, his 1st and last A tends to be the ones that are shortest if anything and historically but he can do all three at 4 hrs really unless he is overtired for some reason. The middle A is always the longest if there is a difference.
Anna I tried to cut the first nap at 45mins a few days a couple weeks ago and he is really hard to wake and pretty much cries unless he is carried for the next 3-4hrs until he naps even though on a good nap he can play independently for an hr+ at a time. Also when I did this he started having EW after 9-10hrs sleep.
Yesterday he woke 7.30am, napped 11.30-12.30pm and 4.30-6pm and went to bed at 9pm after playing in the cot for more than 30mins. Then he STTN until 8am this morning. Today I tried to cut his 1st A time to 3.5hrs but he took 30mins to go down (UT as laughing) and then only slept  1hr 10min and the same for the second nap took 30mins to go down and only took an hour. Then this evening he didn't sleep until 9.30pm and was just up there playing and babbling for more than 30mins.
I guess all this points to too much day sleep but I can't stand the miserable baby I usually get if I cut the nap when he is otherwise so happy all the time. Is there a particular way I should wake him or a good point in the sleep cycle when he might not be so miserable?
I also tried one week to cut the pm nap and let the am one be the long one as I read if the 1st A is shorter maybe this is a better option but again he was just crying and super clingy until bedtime.
He is even worse if I wake him in the morning to start the day earlier and will only last about 2hrs before being hysterical for a nap so I try to let him sleep until he wakes which is usually between 7.30 - 8.30am.
I don't mind a later bedtime at all, but the problem is he still wants to sleep 12hrs most of the time so it just makes the next day start even later.

[anna*]

Well, it doesn't sound like you've got too many options unless your days are going to move later and later all the time! I would keep waking from the first nap (just my preference - so that if the first nap goes bad or is skipped, there is a pm nap to catch up with), and I expect he will get used to it. You could go into his room at 25 mins and wake him when he is stirring, to see if that helps?

[Khalam's Mama]

Yeah that is exactly what happens our days get later and later and when he gets up 8.30 he naps 12.30 - 3ish and ends up in bed by 7 then gets up 7 the next day and so we start again with 2 naps which slowly get later and later! I don't bother waking him earlier because it is the only way I can stop bed getting later indefinitely and as I said I avoid waking him as much as possible.
I guess I should observe him and go in when he is stirring like you say. What puts me off doing a short 1st nap is if he only takes a short 2nd nap of his own accord he doesn't end up with any decent ones and he often naturally shortens the second nap and has a long 1st one.
I know you are right I only have so many options since there is just no way to fit 14.5hrs sleep and 12hrs A into a 24hrs day.
Thanks.